North Coast Diaries

Out of context: High Tide --- Monday, October 5, 2009

Sometimes the local conditions will force a bird to behave outside the bounds of our expectations for what they do.  High tide conditions are a good example.  Many times shorebird species will either take advantage of a temporary situation or, more often, just put up with it until things go back to normal. Semipalmated Plovers at Stanley Lake in Seaside can usually depend on large expanses of open mudflat most of the time, but the extra high tides that typically come with the full and new moons often have then behaving like phalaropes. Add to this the out of context postures and structural details that we don't always notice when they're running around in a proper setting and we have a recipe for mis-identification.

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